We (DIY Doctor) have been monitoring this string pretty carefully to see if anyone from Crown would do the sensible thing and pop in to chat. However, it hasn't happened so we wrote to them to ask what was being done about a smelly paint problkem that is affecting so many people.

Dear DIY Doctor,
Thank you for your efforts on our behalf, we have also been busy trying to get to the bottom of this problem and we feel as though we have had some success. We did receive a visit from a Crown representative, nice guy and very concerned who took our tins of paint away with him for testing and we await the results on that. However, in the meantime he told the decorators who had done the job in the first place for us to paint over the offending areas with Alkali Resistant Sealant, which he did warn us would smell for a few days!!!!!! This is as far as we have got at the moment and we are awaiting the outcome. We will keep you posted. Until the whole matter has been resolved we would be reluctant to use Crown paints again. All we want is our home back.

It would be good to hear back from you, and everyone else, as to how the situation progresses. It is our feeling that there are too many disgruntled people (Crown customers) involved for this to be a coincidence. We have offered Crown the opportunity of posting directly onto the forum to keep everyone informed as to how the research is going and we will certainly post anything which comes to us by way of info. Good luck with it. Doc

Hello again
Thought we should bring you up to date with our smelly paint problem. We took the advice from Crown which was to have all the offending walls painted over with the Alkali Resistant Sealant, and which we were warned would smell dreadful until it dried. It smelled so bad we had to sleep in the living room for the first night, but over the course of a week with lots of fresh air blowing through!!! the smell of the sealant gradually subsided and did stop the original smell of the Crown emulsion. We then had a different paint put on over the top of everything and the house is now pretty much back to normal, not completely without the sealant smell but getting there. However we have to say that the response from Crown has been exactly what it should have been. They have been helpful and fair. We are still waiting for the results of the tests on the offending paint and we will let you know when we find out, and in a week or so the Crown rep is coming back to see us and bringing one of Crown's technical team with him. That is fine by us. That's all so far, we will keep you posted.

I PAINTED MY KITCHEN WITH CROWN "BREATHEASY" AND AS IT DRIED WE WERE NEARLY OVERCOME WITH THE SMELL OF AMMONIA. I HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH PAINTING SMELLS OTHER THAN NORMAL ONES IN 20 YEARS OF DECORATING HOUSES. CROWN HAVE VISITED AND CARRIED OUT TESTS . I WILL CONFIRM THEIR RESPONSE WHEN THEY GET BACK TO ME . ...WE HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO SIT IN OUR KITCHEN FOR OVER A WEEK NOW....

OMG!! I can't believe I've found this forum...I'm not crazy and nose sensitive after all!!!
I moved into my rental last August, and complained to the landlords for months about a cat smell, which they denied a cat having lived here, and I too was on my hands and knees sniffing the floorboards and detected a potent cat urine smell. I noticed the smell stronger once the windows were open, and thought it was coming from outside. I learnt to live with it, and being very unhappy, but then one day noticed the smell wasn't as strong, but of course it was September/October and the windows were closed, and have been closed pretty much all throughout Winter until a few days ago, the sun has been out, and finally I can open the window for some air..........BUT, now the smell is back!!!!!!!! I can't stand it, it actually irriates my nose, like an allergy.
So I started to search and found this forum. I'm going to send this to my landlords, not that I can imagine they will do anything about painting the wall...but I wonder if it could be a good excuse to get out of my lease early?? I'm definitely moving out by August - I decided I wasn't going to go through another winter in this house (poor insulation and cold air blowing through doors and windows), but now to think I've got to go through a summer with the windows closed and the house smelling like cat PEE!!!!!!!!!!!
Does anyone else suffer from any allergy from the smell??
Sorry for such a long post - but I can't believe I've found this, and now people will not think I'm crazy about the cat smell!!!!

DIY Doctor have been looking into possible reasons for this problem since we saw the first post many weeks ago. Fortunately (as ex grads) we have been able to coerce a couple of Uni scientists into putting their knowledge into action for the public good !

Two independent suggestions have come back based on the idea that the natural bacteria in water can react (smell) very badly if not properly neutralised when the water is used for paint.

We have forwarded this theory to Crown and will post any replies. In the meantime we would be very pleased to hear from anyone who may be able to add further thoughts on this hypothesis.

DIY Doctor has received the following reply from Crown after we made them aware that a couple of scientists have agreed that it may well be stagnant water in the paint which is causing the stinky paint problem.

Doc

“Thank you very much for your insight. Our research team has been investigating this possibility amongst others and we will share our findings with you once our studies are completed”

Hello again
The latest in the saga is that the Crown Rep came to see us again and with him came someone from Crown's technical department. We still had a bit of a smell but it was fading and it was more like a sour smell than the original stink bomb smell. We assumed that it was the sealant that was still smelling, unpleasant but not unbearable. However the Crown techincal chap couldn't smell anything and also the original paint of ours that had been taken away for testing had nothing untoward in it. None of this surprised us. However, we have to say that Crown have been very fair with us and we were offered further tests if the sour smell was still lingering, but, we think it has gone. I say we think because the "summer" has yet to come and fresh air and sunshine always made it worse. We will see, but at the moment it is good to have our house back.
Yours optimistically!

Crown's smelly paint is obviously getting around! Greetings from Ireland and my little patch of smelliness. I've been driven absolutely demented trying to get to the bottom of why my recently-painted bedroom stinks. Needless to say, it's playing havoc with my love life - who can I sue? Joking aside, I had my bedroom painted about a month ago and when the usual newly-painted smell subsided, I was left with a smell that I found difficult to put into words. Gas/ammonia is close but the one description that I kept coming back to was: phlegmy. I'm not in the habit of going around smelling people's mucousy offerings but I was trying to capture how strangely offensive the smell is, and that was the nearest I could get. Quelle surprise, the paint used was Crown Matt Emulsion.

I've gone to many of the lengths other posters mentioned above in an effort to identify and erradicate the smell but just last night I sniffed my walls (hope no one was watching) and discovered the origin of the pong. I googled 'smelly paint' and landed here. Encouraged (and not just a little bit pissed off) by the experiences outlined here, I contacted the DIY retailer a few minutes ago and spoke to the manager about the problem. I brought this forum to his attention and suggested he hammer home to Crown that there appears to be a serious problem. He noted my complaint and took my details and promised to contact them immediately about the matter. I also asked for Crown's head office details as I intend to pursue this vigorously.

I'll keep you posted.

J

PS Just as I was about to hit submit, my phone rang and it was a guy from Crown saying he'd be out on Wednesday morning to take the paint away for testing so at least they're responding quickly. I'm aware that many of you had your paint tested with no satisfactory results but I'm going to hold onto some in case I need some independent tests done at a later date. The guy was pleasant and courteous though so hopefully I might get somewhere with the mystery of the smelly paint and my diminishing lovelife...

From Dublin, Ireland. Finally today realised that the smell in the recently decorated bedroom is coming from the walls. The mild spell of warm weather this past few days has really made a kids bedroom room awfully smelly. It's exactly the same description of smell...gassy (but we don't use gas) / sewery (but they are clear).

About 4 weeks ago I put up two layers of "Warmaline" insulating polystyrene on cold external walls of a bedroom. I covered that with lining paper and then a 'Super Fresco' textured wallpaper. That was painted with Magnolia coloured Crown Matt Emulsion from a 10lt bucket. Took me ages to do all that.
Just noticed this thread so haven't taken any corrective measures yet.
Praying I don't have to scrape off those painstaking layers I just put up.

I decorated my bedroom last year and have suffered the smell of cat wee every time the window is left open for any period of time.

I decorated my lounge over Christmas and have the same problem.

There is a small difference though in my case as in my bedroom I did not use Crown Paint. I used Tesco magnolia matt on the walls and Focus goes on pink and dries white (or whatever they call it) in matt again on the ceiling.
So which one is made by Crown please? Tesco took one of my cans of paint to test but that was months ago and I have heard nothing - but now I know it isn't just me I will chase them up.

In my lounge I used Crown matt emulsion on the walls and the same Focus paint on my ceiling that I used in my bedroom.

I did try washing my bedroom walls with a bleach solution as I assumed that a bacterial growth was causing the problem but it hasn't helped - although for a few days it did smell different!

We have recently painted a room with the same results! The room smells awful. Funny thing is my next door neighbour is now complaining about the same smell in a room she only painted a few weeks ago. I checked it out and she has the same smell as in our room. We both used Crown paint, however she used a trade 10L while I white washed my walls with their cheapest white paint I could find and then overcoated with a paint from their Solo range on two walls (no smell) and a matt emulsion 2.5L on two walls (smell).

I rang Crown and their Customer Service manager asked me to drop the paint off where we purchased it and they would collect and test it (not sure about handing all of the paint over).

A couple of questions if anyone has an answer.

Did anyone try painting over with another brand of paint? Did this solve the problem?

A little relieved to find out that I am not going mad. I painted my bedroom two weeks ago with Crown paint bought at B&Q. It made such a difference to my room with that nice newly painted room smell. Now my room stinks.

I couldn't understand what it was so I recleaned my window, I cleaned the floor again and still sinks. It wasn't there before I painted so I smelt the walls and it is horrible.

I left my window open hoping it would ease and it gets worse. Also when my heating is on it is worse too.

I contacted B&Q who said I have to contact Crown which is fair enough. I asked about this akali thing people mention on here and B&Q said never heard of it and never heard of paint leaving a horrible smell.

I contacted Crown but they need the batch number which is at home. So will ring later.

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